Saturday, March 05, 2011

EKB Capsule News...Kentucky...3-6-'11

Former UK basketball forward Rekalin Sims, who played under coach Tubby Smith, was arrested Friday morning and charged with trafficking in a controlled substance. Police say Sims had marijuana shipped to him from California via Fedex to the "Fedex Express" shipping center on Mercer Road. They say someone else picked up the package, but that person led police to Sims. Sims, a 6'8" junior college transfer from Salt Lake Community College played for the Wildcats during the 2005-06 season before being granted a release from the team. Sims left for Fresno State, but was kicked off that team after being charged in connection with the beating and robbery of a disabled man. That felony robbery charge was later dismissed. Sims was taken to the Fayette County Detention Center and placed on a $25,000 full cash bond.

Kentucky State Police arrested Michael Jolly of Carlie Saturday morning on a number of charges, including driving under the influence and wanton endangerment of a police officer. Rowan County Police say Jolly hit a car on Kentucky 32 then drove off. When he was later pulled over, Jolly refused to exit his vehicle. That's when a trooper used his baton to bust out a car window and remove Jolly from the vehicle. Jolly was taken to the Rowan County Detention Center.

Police in Harlan County say 52 year old Mossie Ann Glover of Cumberland turned her vehicle onto US 119 in Cumberland and was hit after failing to yield to an oncoming tractor-trailer. Glover was pronounced dead at the scene, while an infant in her car was transported to Harlan ARH with minor injuries. The driver of the tractor-trailer, Gary Wayne Barnett, was not injured.

Brian Hensley of Dwarf, in Perry County, has been sentenced to five years, but, under terms of a plea deal, he will only spend 300 days in jail as long as he follows the conditions of his probation. Hensley was arrested on April 5, 2010 by deputies with the Perry County Sheriff’s Office after he allegedly shot Roger Miniard and Rebecca Jones with a shotgun on Red Star Mountain in the Dwarf community. According to police, Miniard and Jones were looking at property when Hensley shot them. Hensley was indicted in June on two counts of first-degree assault and three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment. On January 27th, he pleaded guilty on two counts of amended charges of second-degree assault under extreme emotional disturbance and three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment.

A criminal investigation is underway in Greenup County after 40 year old Leslie “Cricket” Lee was found in a bed in her home around 6:45 A.M. Friday morning fatally stabbed twice in the neck. Her husband Steven, of just a year and a half, says he found her that way when he came home from a drive.

Letters, drawings and even a prison ID from Michael Carneal, who is serving a life sentence for killing three classmates and wounding five in a 1997 shooting at Heath High School in Paducah, can be bought online from web sites selling items that once belonged to notorious killers. Carneal's items, along with self-portraits from Washington sniper Lee Boyd Malvo, a cigar partly smoked by Charles Manson and clown drawings by notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy, are part of an array of prison paraphernalia sold as "murderabilia." Kentucky has no law to prevent such sales, but one of Carneal's victims, Missy Jenkins Smith, who is paralyzed from the chest down, says the sales are "sad and wrong" and should be barred. Andy Kaha, a victim advocate for the city of Houston, has led a national push to end the trade, saying the sales are like getting sucker-punched again for the victims, and he doesn't think anyone should be able to rob, rape and murder, and make a buck out of it. Eric Gein, who operates the Florida-based serialkillersink.net, said the sales do nothing more than reflect America's morbid fascination with notorious killers. Lisa Lamb, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Department of Corrections, says an internal affairs investigation has been opened concerning the exchange of information and/or items between inmate Michael Carneal and outside entities.